Book Review: The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus

THE RIGHT WORD: ROGET AND HIS THESAURUS authored by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet is a picture book biography for children focusing on the life of Peter Roget and his magnificent thesaurus. Known for their award-winning work A SPLASH OF RED, this author-illustrator team once again delivers an inspiring masterpiece.

This beautifully written biography celebrates the power of language. Through brilliantly selected words, this author/poet is able to bring the life of Roget alive for young readers.

The creatively illustrated book uses the technique of collage to tell the story of the author’s life. The picture book focuses on the author’s passion for making lists and selecting just the right words. The illustrator does an exceptional job incorporating visual representations of words and word lists into the story.

A timeline, information sources, further readings, and an illustrator’s note add depth to the work.

I highly recommend this book for library collections. Look for this book on Caldecott shortlists this year.

To learn more about the author/poet, go to Jen Bryant’s website at http://www.jenbryant.com/.
To learn more about the illustrator, go to Melissa Sweet’s website at http://melissasweet.net/.

LibraryThing ARC used for review